作者：Josh Bycer

2012年的ARPG季随着最受期待的游戏之一的发行而降临了。《暗黑2》作为ARPG之王尚有争议，其模式在一段时间内曾倍受争议。而对于《暗黑3》，暴雪老菜新炒，企图再次吸引新老粉丝，但过分简化成了《暗黑3》的硬伤。

优点

在这篇分析文中，我们跳过情节部分，因为要探讨的东西太多了。暴雪在《暗黑3》的设计中做了几处改进。首先我们来谈谈改得好的地方。从类型上看，种族的种类和技能设计无疑是最好的。无论选择什么种族，都有其独一无二的地方；移除普遍存在的魔法值，换成每个种族特有的能量之源是个明智之举。

在其他种族设计的变化上，我很喜欢的一个是改进了符文系统。最初，暴雪希望让玩家在游戏世界中寻找可以增强各个种族的不同技能的符文。对于物品掉落，也使用了相同的系统，玩家在整个游戏过程中都可以升级自己的符文，并让自己的技能逐渐增强。

在测试版中，设计师意识到这种形式使玩家的工作量太大而收获不多，于是调整了。现在符文对每个种族和每个技能都是独有的，且随着升级而开启。我第一次听说这个变化时，我没有太大兴趣，但玩了之后，我觉得蛮管用的。

符文现在是独一无二的了，但设计师不满足于它们只能增加属性值。于是，当玩家将符文与有限的技能选择相结合后，各种符文又大大地改变了技能的动态性。这让游戏的选择增多了。

我在《暗黑3》中玩了一个巫医。他的第一个武器是喷枪，让角色可以射出带毒的飞镖。装上第一个符文后，可以将它变成三支带火的飞镖，且攻击速度更快，伤害更大。第二个符文将伤害换成一种妨碍活动的负面状态，即让怪物无法靠近玩家。

现在你可以选择任意一种符文，他还有其他技能：抓手，即召唤一只手抓住怪物。这一般伴随着活动的负面状态，但还可以装上一个符文，以增加它的每秒伤害（DPS)。所以现有的选择是：我要怎么才把这两种技能组合在一起使用？

Diablo-3-Gameplay(from justd3.com)

因为有6个主动技能和3个被动技能的限制，所以游戏给予玩家大量不同的选择以培养自己的角色。也许以后我们会听说某位玩家练成了超强的角色，把游戏变得小菜一碟。

虽然《暗黑》的剧情可能不会获得普利策奖，但暴雪的编剧和美工确实为游戏世界的更新做了不少工作。游戏看起来很棒，打斗也很有感觉。因为各个角色杀敌的能力都是不同的，所以每当战斗结束，各个区域看起来就像血腥的战场。新同伴各有自己的属性和技能，让孤军奋战的玩家有了得利的帮手。

游戏不再把传说放在游戏手册上，而是散落在游戏世界中，使剧情和不同敌人的背景更加充实。大多数地下城和户外场景是随机排列的，在探索时还会遇到迷你事件，这让玩家重复游戏时有了更多新鲜感。

从类型上看，《暗黑3》的BOSS战是我最喜欢的。玩家无需一边猛打BOSS，一边担心自己的药水能不能撑到5分钟。各个BOSS都有独特的攻击和弱点，需要玩家既能攻又能守。

到目前为止，我所提到的东西都是积极的，然而，《暗黑3》的小问题太多，终于酿成了大缺憾。

简化

《暗黑3》的主要问题都不算大，也不明显。但一点不平，不成直线。在带有如此多活动部件的游戏中，当出现一个小问题时，必然会影响到其他部分。问题的重点是，暴雪为了让玩家容易上手，在简化方面做过头了。

首先是种族本身，这个问题是各个角色都没有永久性，个性化的设定成了泡影。各个技能一旦开启，就会一直发挥作用，这个问题直到暴雪发布了补丁才解决。虽然符文确实给角色的技能带来显著的变化，但修改后，相同的问题还是存在。

随意混搭的设定，我觉得不错，但没有成长，最终结果就是让升级变得毫无意义。我的巫医有了6个主动技能和相应的符文后，突然之间我就再也没有升级的欲望了。这个问题出现在大约26级时，我距离封顶的60级尚有34级之遥。

如果有什么不容易被复制的东西或更多的选项内容，那么我可以说我的角色还算有个性。被动技能系统的设计虽然考虑到这点，但能选择的也只有15个中的3个，一旦玩家等级封顶，又受限制了。如果我已经升到10级以上了，但角色仍然没有什么太大的变化，那这个设计就有问题。

为了让所有技能都能生效，设计师根据角色DPS的命中率的不同，设定技能引起的伤害范围。这本身是一个不错的设定，但如果我们把它与简化的属性系统一起看，问题又来了。

属性

在《暗黑3》中，虽然角色仍然有4个主要的属性，但玩家不再对其加点。相反地，角色会随着升级得到一些属性点，以及从装备中得到属性加成。问题在于，设计师在简化属性增益方面简化过头了，限制了玩家的选择。

在《暗黑2》中，任何属性对各个种族都有价值。比如，智力会影响魔法值，力量会影响近攻伤害等等。但在《暗黑3》中，只有两个属性——精力和初始属性值对种族有意义。初始属性值既会影响角色的防御，也会直接影响DPS的加成。

这个设定的结果就是，如果装备对初始属性值或精力有增益，那么这件装备对角色的能力就有很大影响。所以，我的角色是野蛮人，如果我有一件增加体力的装备，我就没理由使用只能增加智力的装备。因为所有技能范围都只受DPS的影响，不加强初始属性或精力就是自找死路，尤其是在难度更大的关卡。

另一个结果是，寻找掉落物品这一行为被简化了。各个种族只需要一心一意地寻找跟自己的初始属性有关的道具。也就是，所有野蛮人都只寻找增强体力的道具，所有恶魔猎手都只需要敏捷道具。如果其他属性能提供某些有意义的增益，如加快力量重生或对某个技能增加一点点增益，那么情况就大不同了。

然而，因为过分简化的属性系统，寻找掉落物品成了鸡肋。考虑到各个种族的主要属性，我很迷惑，为什么我还坚持寻找只能给其他增益其他属性的种族限定装备？

难度

简化的调整在难度系统方面达到极致。暴雪曾称，过去他们希望把正常的难度保持在简单或休闲模式。这个想法没错，但为了做到这一点，设计师们做得过头了。

在《暗黑2》中，玩家一开始就可以找到大量不同的稀有道具和增益道具，这种让玩家觉得自己随时能得到好东西的感觉，是一种强大的驱动力。在《暗黑3》中，增益道具和高级稀有道具都只能在更高难度的关卡中找到。

例如，在《暗黑2》的第1幕，我很幸运地找到了一套独一无二的道具。然而到了《暗黑3》我在整个正常和噩梦模式中都没有找到任何特别的道具。增效道具也受限制，在正常模式下找不到可以增加抵抗力的增效道具。

在《火炬之光1》中，掉落物品的问题也存在。当玩家爆出一堆没用或不想要的东西时，寻找掉落物品成了一件累人的事。不同的是，《火炬之光》是因为没有恰当地调整装备属性。而《暗黑3》则是限制属性对各个种族的作用，以及限制玩家获得多样化的装备。

想让玩家轻松游戏的心意我可以理解，但把大量更深刻的设定和奖励移到更高难度的关卡，使正常模式变得这么简单，让人感觉这是在惩罚骨灰级玩家。想卡在正常模式还真是件难事，唯一让我觉得有点意思的就是，当我和其他3个人一起玩时，增效道具对怪物管用了。

正常情况下：先吃蔬菜，再吃甜品。但在这个情况下，游戏给人的感觉就是，给了玩家一块已出炉10天的蛋糕，告诉他吃完这块就可以吃出炉5天的蛋糕，然后是2天的，最后才是新鲜出炉的。

延迟

最后我们再谈谈游戏的连网问题。对于不想连网的《暗黑3》玩家，暴雪设计了一个拿真金白银交易的拍卖行系统。不同于过去打击《暗黑2》的道具买卖行为，暴雪现在热情地采纳这一做法。其目的在于防止玩家使用外挂软件或复制道具，让所有人都使用battle.net服务玩游戏。

diablo_auctions(from maximumpc.com)

这个决定一定程度上挫伤了玩家的心。对玩家来说，最大的问题是，如果他们所在的服务器延迟，就会影响游戏。我也遇到过延迟的问题，怪物进攻以前，我的角色已经死了或命值所剩无几。对我而言，虽然我看到了battle.net服务的好处，但我不得不表示反对。因为这种好处并没使游戏更好玩。

总体上，《暗黑3》是一款好游戏，种族和技能选择方面的调整总体上提升了设计。然而，暴雪试图提高游戏的易玩性，做了一些背道而驰的事。

这在个过程中，《暗黑3》变得平淡了，在玩家看到真正称得上有趣的体验以前，低难度的关卡都是沉闷乏味的。我个人比较讨厌升级的游戏，那种游戏除非等级封顶了，否则游戏就没有真正开始。这也是为什么我远离了《魔兽世界》。

公平地说，《暗黑2》直到发布了几次补丁和新内容的扩展包之后才上升到经典的地位。以现状来说，《暗黑3》比《暗黑2》好多了，现在的问题还不足以毁掉游戏体验。

如果你希望看到ARPG模式的大修正，《暗黑3》恐怕要让你失望了。但是暴雪的手艺经过多年磨练，一点儿小变化也会大大提升《暗黑3》。如果他们可以修正以上提到的问题，那么将《暗黑3》封为ARPG之王，我就没有异议。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

The Devilish Details of a Diablo 3 Analysis

By Josh Bycer

This is it ladies and gentlemen; the start of ARPG season 2012 begins with one of the most anticipated games this year. Diablo 2 has arguably been the king of the genre and the model that others have been judged for some time. With Diablo 3, Blizzard has gone over the formula again in an attempt to hook new and old fans yet again, but the amount of accessibility may be its undoing.

Building a Better Looter:

We’re going to skip the story part of this analysis as we have a lot to discuss. With Diablo 3, Blizzard has made several revisions to the design. First let’s talk about the good. The class design is easily some of the best from the genre both in variety and skills. Each choice plays completely differently from each other and removing the ubiquitous “mana pool” and replacing it with a unique energy source per class was a smart move.

The other change to class design and one that I really liked was the revision of the rune system. Originally, Blizzard wanted the player to find runes in the world that could be equipped on the different skills of each class. Using the same rarity system for loot drops, players would upgrade their runes over the course of playing and make their skills incrementally better.

During beta, the designers realized that this form would amount to too much work without much gain and instead changed it. Now runes are unique both per class and per skill and unlock with leveling. I wasn’t a big fan of this when I first heard it, but having played it, the new system works.With the runes now unique, it allowed the designers to make them to be more than just mere stat boosts. Each rune radically changes the dynamic of said skill and when you combine this with the limited skill selection, it leads to some great in game choices.

Here’s an example of a choice I had with my witch doctor. His first skill is a blowgun that shoots poison tipped darts. The first rune you equipped can turn it into a three dart rapid fire attack doing more damage. The next rune will replace the damage with a movement debuff keeping enemies from getting close.

Now you could choose one or other, but then there is his other skill: grasping hands, that summons a section of hands to grab the enemy. It normally comes with a movement debuff, but you could put a rune on it to increase its damage per second. The choice then becomes: what can I do with these two skills to make them work together?

With the limit of six skills and three passives, there are a lot of choices for how do you want to define your character. Chances are as time goes on, we’ll hear about legendary builds that players have used to turn the game into a cakewalk.

A Violent Sight Seeing Tour:

While the Diablo story may not be winning a Pulitzer anytime soon, the writers and artists at Blizzard have done a lot to flesh out the world. The game looks great and there is a visceral feel to the combat. As each character’s abilities tear apart enemies differently, makes each area look like a battlefield when the fight is over. New follower’s each with their own personality and skills, give single-players an able partner.

Instead of having the lore in the game manual, lore books are scattered around the world fleshing out the story of the game and of the different enemies. With most dungeons and outdoor sections randomized and mini event that can happen while exploring, give players something to look for on repeat plays.The boss battles of Diablo 3 are some of my favorite from the genre. They’re not about whaling on an enemy for 5 minutes and hoping you have enough potions to last. Each boss has unique attacks and tells requiring the player to be as much on defense as they are on offense.

So far everything mentioned has been a positive but with so many things Diablo 3 does right, it’s the little things that add up to big problems.

A Little Too Much Hack and Slash:

The main problems with Diablo 3 aren’t huge, blatantly obvious issues. But are small things that are out of alignment. In a game with so many moving parts, when there is one problem with the design it affects the other parts as well. The key point of each issue is Blizzard’s attempt at adding accessibility has led to simplicity.

First are the classes themselves, the problem is that there is no permanence to each character and the idea of personalization is an illusion. Each skill once unlock will act in the same manner for all time or until Blizzard releases a patch. While the runes do provide noticeable changes to their respective skills, once modified, the same problem remains.

While I’m fine with being able to mix and match at anytime, without some kind of growth, it eventually renders the act of leveling meaningless. On my witch doctor, once I had my six skills and runes set, suddenly there was no reason to care about leveling anymore. This happened around level 26 and I still had 34 more levels to go up before I hit the level 60 cap.

If there was something that I could do that would not be easily replicated or there were more choices, then I could say that my character was personalized. The passive skill system was designed with that in mind, but with only being able to choose from 3 of 15 available, once again leaves the player limited once they reach the cap. When I go more than 10 levels without making any major changes to my character, there is a problem.

To keep every skill viable, the designers made every damage causing skill scale based on different percentages of the character’s DPS (damage per second.) This by itself was a great change but when we look at this along with the simplistic attribute system, a problem rears its head.

One Way Fashion Shopping:

In Diablo 3, while characters still have 4 main attributes, players no longer assign points to them. Instead characters will gain a few attribute points on level up and the rest from equipment bonuses. The problem is that the designers went too far with simplifying attribute bonuses and hurt the options players have.

In Diablo 2, every attribute had value to each class. Intelligence affected mana pool, strength affected melee damage and so on. But in Diablo 3, only two attributes matter per class: vitality and a primary stat. The primary stat affects both the defensive options of the character and adds a direct bonus to DPS.

What that does, is now the only equipment that matters is if it has a bonus to the primary attribute or vitality. As a barbarian, there is no reason why I should take gear that gives a bonus to intelligence when I have one that gives a bonus to strength. Since all skills scale from DPS only, it’s suicide to not boost the primary or vitality whenever possible, especially on the harder difficulty levels.

The other consequence is that the search for loot has been dumb down. Each class can only realistically search for items relating to their primary stat. All barbarians are going to want strength items, demon hunters: dexterity and so on. If the other attributes offered some kind of meaningful bonus, like increase power regeneration or add a small bonus to the effect of each skill that would be a different story.

However, with the simplistic attribute system, the search for loot has been neutered. Given the decision to base each class on one main stat, I’m confused why I kept finding class restricted gear that gave bonuses to other attributes.

Differing Difficulties:

The culmination of the simplistic changes comes in the difficulty system. Blizzard has said in the past that they wanted normal to be easy or casual mode. Which is a fine opinion, but to make it that way the designers stretched the content to its breaking point.

In Diablo 2, players could find a wide variety of item rarities and modifiers from the get-go, and that feeling that you could find something great at anytime was an excellent motivator. With Diablo 3, both modifiers and higher item rarities can only be found on the higher difficulty levels.

As an example, when playing Diablo 2 within the first act I got lucky and found one set item and one unique. However in Diablo 3, I didn’t find either type over the entire course of normal and nightmare mode. The # of modifiers is also limited, with no resistance type modifiers in normal mode.

The problems with loot could also be seen in Torchlight 1, where the player was bombarded with so much loot that the player couldn’t use or didn’t want that it made the search for loot more of a chore. The difference is that Torchlight did it due to not properly curving up equipment attributes. While Diablo 3 is due to limiting what attributes work for each class and gating the access of more varied gear behind the difficulty settings.

I can understand wanting to ease people into the game, but with normal mode so easy to begin with, moving a lot of the deeper decisions and rewards to higher difficulty levels feels like it is punishing expert players. It’s very hard to get stuck playing normal mode, and the only times things were challenging for me was when I was playing with 3 other people and the bonus to monsters was in effect.

Normally the analogy is: having to eat your vegetables before having dessert. But in this case, it’s like being given a cake that’s 10 days old, and told that once you eat that, then you can have one that’s 5 days old, then 2 and finally a fresh cake.

Lag Spikes of Doom:

Finally let’s talk about Blizzard’s decision to require a constant internet access. For those that didn’t follow it, for Diablo 3, Blizzard has implemented a real money auction house system. Instead of trying to fight the people who sold items for cash in Diablo 2, Blizzard has now embraced it. The consequence is that to prevent people from using hacks and creating duplicate items, they want everyone to be on the battle.net service while playing.

This decision has fractured the community to some extent. The biggest issue for gamers is that if the server they’re on starts to lag, this can affect the game. I’ve had cases where I died from lag spikes or my health going from full to near empty before the enemy attacked. For me, while I can see the benefit of being connected to battle.net, I have to argue against it. As the benefits don’t have any bearing on what makes Diablo enjoyable.

Overall Diablo 3 is a good game, the changes to class dynamics and skill selection as a whole help elevate the design. However, it feels like Blizzard tried to fix something that wasn’t broken with trying to make the game accessible.

In the process, Diablo 3 feels tame and that there is a whole lot of tedium beating the lower difficulty levels before you can see what’s considered the meat of the experience. Personally I hate leveling games that say that the game doesn’t begin until you reach the cap, which is also why I got as far away from World of Warcraft as possible.

To be fair to Diablo 3, Diablo 2 didn’t reach its legendary status until after several patches and the additional new content with the expansion pack. As it stands, Diablo 3 is much better all around compared to Diablo 2 at launch and the issues present aren’t enough to ruin the experience.

If you’re expecting a grand revision of the ARPG formula, you may be disappointed with Diablo 3. But Blizzard has hone their craft over the years, and the subtle changes do a lot to elevate Diablo 3. And if they can fix the problems mentioned here, I’ll have no issue with giving the ARPG crown to Diablo 3.(source:chronicgamedesigner)